God that God is their God i. e. their benefactor or patron and they the beneficiaries or friends of God for long after their death God acknowledged this their state of alliance unto him in saying unto Moses Exod. 3.6 I am the God of thy father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And from this their alliance unto God Christ proveth their Resurrection and not only theirs but of the dead in generall Luk. 20.38 because God is not a God of the dead i. e. he neyther is nor can be a benefactor to give a blessing to the dead who while they rest in the state of death are not capable of any benefit but he is a God of the living i. e. The persons to whom God is a benefactor to give them his blessing must be living or being dead must be raysed to life that therby they may be capable to receive his blessing for unto him all live i. e. all the dead in God by vertue of their state of alliance unto him which state dies not by their dying have a present right to a future life whereto God being their benefactor is able and willing to rayse them The Degree of mans Right to these future Priviledges is a right of Institution If we consider mans state of freedome and alliance with God man therein hath now a right in possession to become seized of that state ipso facto and to enjoy it actually in this life for in this life a man justified is actually the freed-man and friend the son and heyre of God But if wee consider the future priviledges consequent to this state as the Remission of sins the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting man unto these hath not a right in possession for untill the day of Judgement no mans sins are actually forgiven no mans body is actually raysed no mans person is actually possessed of life everlasting But unto these future blessings man in this life hath a right of Institution i. e. he hath a present right to the future possession of them and a present right to petition for that future possession to clayme and make suit for it Such a degree of right had the Israelites during their bondage in Aegypt unto the Land of Canaan whereof then they were not in possession yet then they had a present right to the future possession of it whereto God by his promise unto Abraham had instituted or ordayned them Such a degree of right had David after his anointing by Samuel during the life of Saul unto the kingdome of Israel whereof then he was not in possession yet then hee had a present right to the future possession of it whereto God by his anointing had instituted and ordayned him Such a degree of right have the faithfull during their mortall life unto the Remission of their sinnes the Resurrection of their bodies and the Life everlasting of which blessings they are not now in possession yet now they have a present right to the future possession of them because thereto God by his Will and Testament hath predestinated instituted or ordained them And such a degree of right hath a legatary to his Legacy when the Testament is once confirmed and come to bee of force but a possessory and compleate right hee hath not untill the Executor make delivery or payment of the Legacy which being not done in due time the Legatary by his right of Institution may bring his action and sue for it For Testaments Promises and Covenants have two different effects according to the two differences of time present and future their present effect is an Institution to a right and their future effect is a possession of the thing So their whole effect conjoyned is to institute or ordaine a present right to some future possession The manner how a man hath this state is factively i. e. hee is made to have it This state of divine franchise and alliance with God man hath it not natively i. e. not by virtue of his birth for hee is not borne free nor borne the Sonne of God but is borne an Alien to the Kingdome of Heaven and a stranger to the Family of God for man who is borne on earth and borne the Sonne of man how should hee by virtue of his birth become free of Heaven and bee the Sonne and Heire of God When by his birth in one Kingdome on earth hee can claime no right in another But the Verbe Justified being a compound of Justus and facio doth intimate unto man not onely his seisure of haveing this state but also the maner how hee hath it namely factively by the fact or deede of God by whom hee is made to have this right of state by whom hee is translated from the state of an Alien and of a Stranger to bee made the friend and sonne of God For hence wee are sayd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to bee made the sonnes of God John 1.12 As many as received him to them gave hee power to become or bee made the sonnes of God and to bee made free John 8.36 If the sonne shall make you free yee shall bee free indeed and to bee made accepted Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein hee hath made us accepted in the beloved and made to sit in heavenly places Ephes 2.6 And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places and made nigh Ephes 2.13 Yee who sometimes were farre off are made nigh by the blood of Christ and made meet Col. 1.10 Which hath made us meete to bee partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light So Moses was the sonne of Pharoahs Daughter not natively for shee bred him not in her wombe but factively for shee found him by the Rivers brinke floating in a boat of bulrushes and made him her sonne So Uriah the Husband of Bathsheba was an Israelite not natively for by Nation hee was an Hittite but factively in being made an Israelite So Araunah was natively a Jebusite but factively an Israelite and so every Proselite became free of Israel factively to bee made free And this fact of God in making man to have this state the Scripture calls Justifying which though it much resemble the fact of Adoption yet in the sense of Paul is farre more ample more noble and more gratious Because Justifying is extended to more acts then adopting for it includes pardoning redeeming naturalizing legitimating infranchising and adopting And this justifying fact of God is a Testamentary act whereby this state is predestinated ordained or devised unto man in the Will and Testament of God For wee are made the sonnes of God by his Will John 1.13 Which were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. Men are not borne the sonnes of God by flesh and blood nor made his sonnes by the Will and Testament of man
c. That they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance There is in the Divels an estimatory faith of Christ for they have acknowledged and confessed of Christ that he is the holy one of God and the son of God See Marc. 1.24 and Marc. 3.11 And in them there is a preceptory faith of Christ for they yeeld to his authority and when he commanded them out of the possessed they obeyed his command Marc. 1.26.27 And there is in them a juducatory faith in Christ for they beleeve he is their Judge who hath power to condemne and torment them and they submit unto his sentence only they petition him to stay the execution and not torment them before the time Compare Mat. 8.29 and Luk. 8.28 But in them there is no promissory faith eyther in God or in Christ not that they want will to accept Gods promises but that they want promises to accept for the promises of the Gospel are not ordayned or made to them because they are not to be justified to have a present right to any future blessing but are already condemned to have a present doome to a future curse Mat. 25.41 in everlasting fire prepared for them And Jude 6. they now lie in everlasting chaines untill the day of their execution But the right subject of a promissory faith in Christ is man because the promises of the Gospel i. e. the Legacies of Gods last Will and Testament are predestinated devised or bequeathed unto man and therefore man is the person who is to be justified to have a present right unto those future blessings and this right man hath and acquires by the title of his faith in Jesus Christ And his faith is restrayned unto Jesus Christ not to exclude his faith in God for all faith in Jesus Christ is also faith in God but partly to distinguish it from all other faith in God as from the faith of the Patriarcks which was immediate and from the faith of the Jews which was mediate by the means of Moses and partly to determinate it upon Christ as the only Meanes or Mediator of it unto whom under the Gospel faith is restrayned for fowre reasons 1. Because Christ is the Conveyer of it through whom wee believe in God For that our faith may meete with God aright it must passe unto him in the same way whereby his promises are conveyed unto us And Gods promises come unto man two ways one is immediately when God himselfe doth by himselfe declare his promises so God immediately by himselfe declared his promise unto Noah for the saving of him and all his Family in the Arke from the flood Gen. 6.18 and such an immediate promise God gave by himselfe unto Abraham for a Sonne and Heire of his owne body Gen. 15.4 The other way is mediatly when God declares the will of his promise by the meanes of a Mediatour or Messenger whom God employeth on purpose to deliver it Such was Gods promise to the Israelites for their deliverance out of Egypt wherein Moses was imployed as the Mediatour or Messenger to deliver it Exod. 3.16 Such was Gods promise to David by the message of Nathan for the establishing of the Kingdome of Israel upon the seede of David 2. Sam. 7.4 Such was his promise to the Jewes by the message of the Prophet Jeremy for their returne from Captivity Jer. 29.10 Such was Gods promise to Zacharias by the message of the Angel Gabriel that his Wife Elizabeth should beare him a sonne Luk. 1.13 And such are all Gods promises specified in the Gospel unto man by the message of Jesus Christ whose Ministery is more excellent then any of the former because Heb. 8.6 Hee is the Mediatour of a better Covenant established upon better promises Now our faith in God must go Gods way for when his promise is immediate by himselfe our faith in him must bee immediate as was the faith of Noah and Abraham But when Gods promise is mediate by the meanes of a Mediatour or Messenger our faith in God must bee mediate to believe in God by or through his Mediatour or Messenger for by or through the Messenger our faith is conveyed and arriveth at God as by or through the Messenger Gods promise is conveyed and arriveth at us For faith in Gods Messenger is faith in God who sent him as our Saviour plainely delivers it John 13.20 Hee that receiveeth whomsoever I send receiveth mee and hee that receiveth mee receiveth him that sent mee i. e. believeth in him that sent mee And contrarily diffiding or despising of Gods Messenger is diffiding or despising of God himselfe as Christ in another Evangelist tells his Disciples Luk. 10.16 Hee that despiseth you despiseth mee and hee that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent mee i. e. diffideth or not believeth him that sent mee For want of this mediate faith to believe in God by the meanes of his Messenger God threatens a fearefull judgement upon the Jewes Jer. 29.18 To persecute them with the sword with the famine and with the pestilence and to deliver them to bee removed to all the Kingdomes of the Earth to bee a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all Nations because they have not hearkened to my words saith the Lord which I sent unto them by my servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them but yee would not heare i. e. yee would not believe And for want of the like faith Zacharias was for a time strucken dumbe Luk. 1.20 because hee believed not the words of the Angel Gabriel who was a Messenger from God unto him Such a mediate faith in God had the Israelites who believed in Moses by and through whom their faith was conveyed and arrived at God For Moses was the Messenger from God and the Mediatour of Gods Testament and Covenant with them It was Gods will that the people should believe him for therefore he was to worke Miracle after Miracle before them Ex. 4.8 and it was Gods worke that they did believe in Moses for therefore the Lord sayd unto him Exod. 19.9 Loe I come to thee in a thick cloud that the people may heare when I speake with thee and believe thee for ever where the Originall hath it believe in thee though the nicety of Translators spare to expresse it For Christ testifieth of the Jewes John 5.45 That they trusted in Moses Yet this faith of theirs in Moses was not terminated in Moses but in God for God was the end in whom this faith rested and Moses was the Meane through whom it passed And all faith under the Gospel is a mediate faith for although it bee terminated in God to settle and rest in him as in the finall object or last end of it Yet it mediateth in Christ as the Meanes by and through whom it is carryed and conveyed unto God For 2. Cor. 3.4 The trust wee have to God-ward is through Christ and Ephes 2.18 Through
for ever i. e. hath a right of perpetuity to abide there for ever And againe on the other side it is as manifest that my state of Justification may bee defeated and destroyed Because this latter possibility is necessarily consequent unto the former for if it bee a truth that my state may bee not destroyed then and therefore this also shall bee true that it may bee destroyed Otherwise how can I build againe my first state of sinfulnesse which once I had destroyed How can I make my selfe a transgressour against my Justification How can I have a first and a last estate which are both evill and the last worse then the first But I finde by good History and by sad experience that states of perpetuity have been defeated and destroyed That many a man who hath had an estate in fee simple to him and his Heirs for ever and yet by makeing himselfe a transgressour against his Lord hath forfeited that estate That many a woman who was married for life till death should depart her husband and her and yet by making her selfe a transgressour against her husband hath been divorced and lost her dower That many a sonne who was Heire apparent to his Fathers estate and yet by making himselfe a transgressour against his Father hath been disinherited And that the like is possible concerning my state the Scriptures teach mee three ways 1. By serious Exhortations to take heed of making my selfe a transgressour See John 5.14 and Rom. 11.20 and 1. Cor. 10.12 and 1. Tim. 1.19 and Heb. 3.12 and 1. Pet. 2.11 2. By lively Demonstrations of my danger in case I make my selfe so See Mat. 12.43.44 and Heb. 6.4 and Heb. 10.26.27 and 2. Pet. 2.20 3. By severall Examples of persons who have made themselves so as Aaron David Solomon the whole Kingdome of Israel and the Nation of the Jewes Which Examples doe necessarily conclude that my transgression is possible and my Justification mutable Because of a thing impossible it is impossible there should be any example Gods donation of my present right to bee his Sonne and Heir is absolute without any condition or preceding act on my part except my faith to accept it But my future possession of that Inheritance whereto I have now a present right is conditionall and that condition runs upon my good behaviour modo bene me gesserim that I behave and carry my selfe as becommeth the son and Heire of God for this Condition is sufficiently expressed in Gods last Will and Testament Or supposing but not granting that in Gods Testament there is no mention of any such condition Yet such a Condition must bee understood because the very nature and equity of the thing requires it and the state of a Sonne and Heire wherein I stand doth necessarily draw this duty with it and so binde mee to it that for non-performance thereof my state may bee destroyed Yet every trespasse will not de facto destroy it because God will forgive mee a thousand faults for hee that commands mee to forgive my brother offending against mee and repenting 70. times a day hee certainely being my Father will upon my repentance forgive mee more times in all my dayes And upon this condition hee commands mee to pray unto him for the forgivenesse of my trespasses and in case I forgive other men theirs against mee hee promiseth mee the forgivenesse of mine For because I am his sonne therefore I am not under his Law but under his grace i. e. God will not deale rigorously and strictly with mee to reject or to punish mee for every trespasse like a slave who is under the Law and pleasure of his Lord but hee will use me mercifully and kindely to correct mee in measure or to forgive mee like a sonne who is under the love and grace of his Father Yet his forgivenesse must not licence and move mee to offend but must restraine mee from it and move mee to feare him Hence Psalm 130.4 There is forgivenesse with God not to this end that hee may bee offended but to this that hee may bee feared for the more kinde any Father is the more should the sonne feare to offend Because the greater is his trespasse in case hee offend And as a kinde Father is grieved to disinherit his incorrigible sonne So when my transgression becomes presumptuous and incorrigible my heavenly Father is grieved to reprobate mee and decrees it not but in his wrath For thus hee dealt with the Israelites Psalm 95.10 Forty yeares long was I grieved with this Generation and sayd it is a people that doe erre in their hearts and they have not knowne my wayes unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest 2. My Justification requires a tenure For because the state of it is mutable and defeaseable therefore it requires a tenure wherby I may continue preserve and hold it As my state had a cause procreant or meanes acquisitive which was the title whereby I acquired initiated and had the right of it So also it further needes a cause conservant or meanes retentive whereby the right already acquired entred and had is continued preserved and held which cause conservant or meanes retentive is commonly called a Tenure Now a Tenure is some act of reality or formality whereby a state or any other right is declared and manifested to abide remaine and rest in that person who by a good title acquired and hath it And the tenure whereby I hold a state or other right is generally some use whereto I apply it and consequently some utility or profit from that use accrewing either unto my selfe or to some other being many times a meanes or act different from the former meanes or act which was my title Paul had the state or condition of an Apostle and a right of power to the office of the Ministery and his title to that state and right was his Reception thereof from Christ who collated it upon him as hee fully declared in the first Chapter of this Epistle But the Tenure whereby hee held that state was the Preaching of the Gospel for to this use hee must apply his Ministery Because saith hee 1. Cor. 9.16 A necessity is layd upon mee yea woe is unto mee if I preach not the Gospel So the Tenures whereby most estates in Lands are held heere in England are some services either certaine or uncertaine as Serjeanty Escuage and Socage which either are or may bee tearmed Court-service War-service and Plough-service Now because states and other rights are in this life transitory and defeasable to come and goe to be had and lost therefore when I have a state I must use the meanes to hold it least I lose it For in vaine I use the meanes of a title whereby to constitute and have my state of Justification If I use not also the meanes of a tenure whereby to continue and hold it And in vaine I continue and hold it if I